I had a long day at work. I was in the office at 7:45am. I had hoped to leave the office a little early to squeeze in a run prior to doing my usual CrossFit class. Things worked out. I was able to do a mile after CrossFit. 😛

It was a strength day at XFit. We did 5 rounds of 20 seconds work/20 seconds rest of the following exercises:

Kettlebell clean r/l
Kettlebell press r/l
Kettlebell split squat r/l
Kettlebell one arm row r/l
walkouts or planks (This was performed for 40 seconds. I switched this one up every round.)

I started with a 12kg KB for the first three rounds and upgraded to a 14kg KB for the final two rounds. I’m enjoying the sessions very much. I like Jim and the other XF peeps. 🙂

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I realize that I have not written a blog since February 1st! Time does fly! I plan to change this.

Today is a new day, a new beginning. A series of events transpired since February 1st. A few less than positive things took place. However, it turned out for the best. I’m a believer that things happen for a reason. Though to the naked eye the reason may not make sense, I’ve come to realize that ultimately things work out to our advantage. Sometimes change is a good thing. Unfortunately, I did not run NYC Half Marathon. However, I’m long passed that and have been excited about my new journey. This journey will lead to my achieving my goal of qualifying for Boston. I plan on dedicating myself to be the best I can be. 🙂

Today is a great day on many different levels. First, a few of my running friends (part of the Stinger group) ran the NJ Marathon and the NJ Half Marathon in Long Branch this morning. They did extremely well and I’m so proud of them! 🙂 CONGRATULATIONS to my Stinger friends! Kudos to everyone for their hard work! 🙂 My friends inspire me to become a better person and also a better runner. Everyone of them worked so hard to achieve their goals and they deserve the best! 🙂

In addition, I went to Bodman Park this morning to run a 6 miler. I haven’t been to Bodman Park since February 13th. I was extremely glad to be back. I can’t believe how I missed running those hills. I also missed the people and the beautiful scenery. It felt great to be out. I felt so alive!

I look forward to this week’s training. I plan on posting my progress and hopefully share some funny stories, LOL! 🙂

Till then!

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I returned back to the office on Monday, January 24th, 2011. Needless to say, I fell behind as so many things occurred in my absence (good stuff though). The time off from work was much needed. I returned feeling refreshed. I definitely have a new perspective on things. The first thing I want to say is that I’m proud to be an American. There’s no place like the USA. That’s how I feel and what I see. I’ve traveled abroad several times to many places. There’s definitely no place like home. 🙂

From the training front, I know I’m behind in reporting what I’ve been up to. With that said, here’s a brief description of what I did and then I’ll go into more details with regard to my workout at CrossFit on Tuesday, January 25th.

My birthday was on Tuesday 1/25. I decided to take the day off from work so I may enjoy MY day! I had a great day! I finally turned 21! 😉 My day was productive. In the morning, I had a follow-up visit with my nutritionist. We reviewed my test results and there were some improvements and areas where I needed to make corrections on. I learned a lot. I’ve been learning a lot about myself. This has definitely been a journey. After the appointment, I returned home, changed, and went out for a run in my neighborhood. It was cold out (26 degrees) but the roads were runable, LOL! I completed my 3 mile easy run, rested for a bit, and then went to Avon to attend the 4pm CrossFit class.

The class was a strength/conditioning combo. We started out with a 5 minute joint mobility and then a two round kettlebell warm up.

There were 3 single kettlebell strength stations. The workout consisted of 6 rounds of 20 seconds work/20 seconds rest at each station. We had to finish all six sets on each side before we proceeded to the next station. There was a 2 minute recovery between each station. The workout entailed the following:

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I know I am guilty of not writing daily as I had stated. I was on vacation a week ago and didn’t want to spend too much time on the Internet. I wanted to explore Sharm and enjoy my time there. So here’s to a new start. 🙂

I would like to briefly go over my experience in Sharm El Sheikh. I promise I will not bore you.

Please allow me to start where I had left off in the previous blog (in case you were paying attention, LOL!). I arrived at Sharm International Airport on Thursday evening 1/13/11 around 5pm (local time). I was tired after a long flight from JFK to Cairo, a 3 hour layover in Cairo and another hour flight to Sharm. I simply went to the resort (Sierra Resort) and got settled in. I went out with my close friend (who picked me up at the airport) and we did some shopping. How fun! 🙂 I started anew on Friday 1/14/11 with some activities including running. The weather was nice in Sharm. Temperature ranged from 66-70 degrees during the day. It got cooler at night (high 50s).

Here’s a recap of what I did (from a running perspective) while vacationing in Sharm:

Friday – Ran 2 miles in the evening. It was windy but the temperature was 68 degrees. Lovely! I did pilates later that night.Saturday – Did 3.5 miles. Temperature was 67 degrees. I then did pilates at night.Sunday – Ran 3.5 miles. Temperature was 66 degrees. Perfect running weather!

The week of January 17th my activities were as follows:

Monday – Recovery DayTuesday – Pilates & Core strength. I was actually supposed to run that day but didn’t feel well. My stomach was bothering me so I decided to take it easy and give it another day.Wednesday – Ran 2 miles on the beach! It was 70 degrees. It was great to run barefoot on the sand. I was the only one running on the beach so I definitely looked like an “outsider”, LOL!Thursday – Ran 3 miles. Temperature was 62 degrees. It was cooler but still good.Friday – Recovery day and travel day. It was time to return back home.Saturday – Interval workout on the treadmill. I did a total of 4.6 miles. My workout was 4 x 400m. It was difficult but I managed to tackle the workout. 🙂Sunday – Did 4 miles. It was 20 degrees out. HUGE difference!!!!!!! It wasn’t too bad though. Thank God I was able to adjust. 😛

I had a nice time in Sharm. I went a few times to Burger King as they offered free WiFi! I was able to quickly check on a few critical things. I had one thing at work that I needed to finalize before it slipped.

My flight back to JFK felt much longer than my flight into Cairo International Airport. It must’ve been due to the 7 hour time difference. It’s always difficult to sleep on the plane especially when you’re sitting in an upright position. I was happy to be back home sleeping on my beautiful bed! 🙂

Running in the warmer climate felt nice. I was happy to get some running in while on vacation. I look forward to my continued training for NYC Half Marathon.

Just a quick update on my week so far. Monday was a recovery day as I ended up being at work till 7pm. I was exhausted when I got home and had hoped to do something (exercise-wise) but decided it wasn’t a good idea as I had plans of getting up early Tuesday to run. I stayed with the plan.

On Tuesday, I woke up early and did a 1.6 mile run at 6:30am. It was still dark out and the temperature was 11 degrees. It was freezing but I was extremely pleased to be running with no pain. It simply felt great! I had intentionally planned to run Tuesday morning as I wasn’t sure what the weather conditions would be like in the evening (blizzard watch). I made the right decision because I ended up staying at work till 7:30pm finalizing a few things before I start my vacation.

I had to work this morning but logged off a little after 12:30p so I can start my vacation. 🙂

I’m really excited because I’ve rescheduled this trip three times already. My original departure date was in November. I am at the airport. Waiting at the gate at JFK. Waiting for my flight. So far no delays. This will be a long flight. Approximately 11 hours. After I reach Cairo International Airport I’ll take another flight to Sharm El Sheikh. I’ve never been to Sharm. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather and to some good running and training. 😉

On Saturday, I did a 3 mile run with a few strides in between. The temperature out was cold. It was 17 degrees and light flurries were starting to come down. The roads weren’t the best but most of them were ok to run in. I very much enjoyed the run.

This morning I ran 2.5 miles easy. It was windy out and though the temperature was 27 degrees it felt much colder. I enjoy the easy runs as much as the tempo runs. Both are equally important in a training regimen. I checked my training logs from last year and noticed that I did a long run of 10 miles on 1/10/10 with my friend Joanne at Bodman Park. I miss Bodman and am looking forward to returning back there very soon.

Again, I’m very happy to be back running and not having pain. This is a good sign for my first week of running. 🙂

I had a busy weekend! This is my last weekend in New Jersey. I will be away on vacation starting mid next week and I can’t wait! I will miss NJ and everyone while I’m away. I’ll also do my best to blog if the time and situation allows.

Stay tuned!

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I was unable to go to CrossFit all of this week. Though I was feeling better, I didn’t feel up to the challenging workouts. I felt like I wasn’t ready for them due to the sickness that occurred over the weekend. I know this sounds crazy. I reviewed Monday’s workout in the early afternoon and thought to myself: “Holy Molly! I won’t make it!” I hate to sound weak but that was the reality. I also hesitated to get back to working out too aggressively as I did not want to get injured again. I kept it very conservative and low key.

The good news though I started running! Here’s what I did this past week:

Monday – Did a mile. It was 35 degrees out and was still sunny.Tuesday – Did 1.6 miles. It was 25 degrees out and slightly windy. I was at work late and started running at 8:40pm. I was tired but made it.Wednesday – Did 2 miles in the morning before my hair treatment. It was 33 degrees out and slightly windy.Thursday & Friday – Recovery days.

I noticed that this time last year my long run was 8 miles and my weekday runs were 4 and 5 miles. I’m coming back one step at at time. 🙂

I am extremely pleased that I felt good while running. Nothing hurt. My toes were freezing though. Not a bad problem to have. 🙂

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A sickness crept on me last weekend and it inhibited me from starting my commitment to posting a day. I’m feeling much, much better.

First of all, Happy New Year! We made it to 2011! I sincerely wish everyone the best in achieving all your goals and endeavors this coming year. I’m anticipating the best!

The New Year’s festivities commenced at Nora’s place around 7pm (Friday 12/31/10). I made my appearance at that time, LOL! It was very nice to have a good time with friends. We had a few good conversations. All in all, it was a great time! Afterwards, a few of us (Nora, Susan, Steve, Kevin, and I) went to NYC to do the Midnight Run in Central Park. For me, this was the 3rd annual event. For others it was more than that. For those unfamiliar with the Midnight Run, this event is a 4 mile fun run. My friend Susan had a mishap the night before and was unable to run. I made the decision to walk the 4 miles with her. The gathering and camaraderie means more to me than just doing my thing (i.e. running). I figured I have all year to run. 😉

We drove to Central Park and started the walk after viewing some spectacular fireworks! :). We finished the walk in an hour. We then got back home around 2am.

Late Saturday morning 1/1/11, I woke up and wanted to swim. I did! I wanted to make this memorable for the first day of the year so I swam a mile (64 laps) in the pool. I’ve never done that long of a distance in my life. It was definitely memorable. Later that evening I went with my sister Mona and friend Sabreen and her daughter to do some shopping. Things started going downhill from there as I began to get very very sick. Like food poisoning sick. After 5 hours of torture I was depleted. I thought about going to the ER but was reluctant. Thank God Mona saved me. She bought some medicine from the pharmacy and it worked! I was hoping for it to work. If the medicine hadn’t worked, I would’ve been in deep trouble and would’ve ended up having to go to the hospital.

Sunday was a rest day as I was still very weak. I was taking it really easy with everything. The minute of tasks seemed to be a huge endeavor. Anyway, life is good and I survived.

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I woke up early this morning to head to Avon for the 9am CrossFit class. The gym was finally open! 🙂

Today’s workout was 30 minute of body weight conditioning. We did joint mobility and then did 2 rounds of circuit warm up (similar to the actual workout). The workout consisted of exercises that were performed 30 seconds (of work) and 30 seconds rest non-stop for the entire 30 minutes. We did 5 rounds. The routine was:

Jumping or kipping pull ups – I did jumping pull ups
Mountain climbers
Drop squats, stat jumps or box jumps – I did drop squats
1/2 burpees
jump rope, jumping jacks or sprint in place – I started the first round with jumping jacks and sprinted in place for the 4 remainder rounds
Russian twist (body weight or med ball) – Performed with 15lb med ball

I was in Mike’s group and we started with the Russian twist and moved our way to the other exercises. Jim instructed the class this morning. It was a great workout! I was definitely in cardio zone as I sporadically checked my heart rate.

Chris introduced me to his wife Jenna! Today was her first day. She did very well. They are a cute couple.

I can’t believe that we are only hours away from the New Year! I’m very excited though. I plan to reflect on 2010 over the weekend as I’m getting ready for an event tonight. More details to follow. 🙂

I’ve decided I want to blog more. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now. I will be posting on this blog once a day for all of 2011.

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments, likes, and good will along the way.